Patricia Cornwell, celebrity crime writer and Battery Wharf resident in the North End / Waterfront, came out on the winning side of her own personal adventure. On Tuesday, she was awarded $50.9 million by a federal court jury against her former financial manager, Evan Snapper and his company, Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP. (Read the verdict.)
Cornwell fired Snapper in July 2009 when her net worth was reported to her as $13 million, despite having earned $10 million per year during the previous four years. The seven week court case at Moakley U.S. Courthouse has exposed much of Cornwell’s personal life, including her ongoing mental health struggles that she claimed Snapper took advantage of while collecting a monthly $40,000 fee.
After Cornwell filed the lawsuit, Snapper pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws by buying $50,000 in tickets to a Sir Elton John concert benefiting Hillary Rodham Clinton, using Cornwell’s money.
The 56-year old Cornwell was born in Miami, Florida, grew up in North Carolina and is a descendant of abolitionist and writer Harriet Beecher Stowe. She moved to the North End with her wife, Dr. Staci Gruber, in 2010 from Concord, Mass.
A celebrated and award-winning author, Cornwell is widely known for writing a popular series of novels featuring the heroine Dr. Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner. Her books have sold more than 100 million copies. Cornwell is currently working on the next in the Scarpetta series, “Dust.”
More on the case at the Boston Globe.
